Thieves who break into moving vans, tractor trailers and other cargo containers use a variety of tools such as sledge hammers, acetylene cutting torches, saws, grinders and the like. The bolt cutter is a favored tool of burglars for cutting padlocks because of its portability. Thus there is a need to protect padlocks used on containers, moving vans, semi-trailers, truck trailer units. Tractor trailers with twin rear doors are secured by a pair of stanchions, at least one of which having an operating handle or lever, which is normally secured by a padlock to prevent rotation of the stanchion, thus maintaining the doors in a locked condition. Many moving vans have side doors, which are secured by stanchions. A recess with a locking tab is provided in each side door. The stanchion locking lever, in its locking position, is disposed within the recess with the locking tab extending through a slot in the lever. A padlock is customarily connected to the tab to prevent operation of the stanchion lever. It is also desirable to provide protection for padlocks securing side doors of moving vans.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,828,591 and 3,392,855 issued to Commodore E. Beaver show combined padlock and guard assemblies in which the shackle of a padlock is welded to the guard. Since the shackle is not free to move relative to the guard, the applicability of such an assembly to secure enclosures is limited. Different size guards would be needed for different size locks. There is no interchangeability between locks and guards. U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,533 issued to Jerre Dennis Santini for a Protective Enclosure for a Door Handle Retaining Assembly shows a lock guard with a lock capturing member to which the unhinged leg of a lock shackle is secured. In order to place the lock on the inside of the guard and to be in position to slide the end of the free or unhinged leg of the shackle into the opening in the lock capturing member sufficient distance must exist within the guard above the lock capturing member. The padlock's shackle in its open position is sufficiently longer than the shackle in its closed position, thus requiring incremental space be designed above the lock capturing member—additional space beyond the height of the shackle in the locked position—for the pre-insertion step. This is particularly necessary since Santini uses the lock's unhinged shackle which requires even more elevation above the lock capturing member than the hinged shackle and, due to the height differences, by design negates the use of the top wall during the operation to close and secure the shackle. Consequently, during installation of the padlock into the guard, the shackle can not physically reach the underside of the top wall of the guard to aid in closing the shackle and therefore sufficient space must be provided in the guard to permit one's hand, or a tool, to be placed within the guard to force the shackle to a closed position. This is necessitated by the requirement to apply pressure both from the shackle end and the case end while securing the shackle. Incrementally, this is even more space than the mere lock shackle's open distance dictates. These space requirements result in an excessively large guard affording undesired access by thieves' cutting tools.